52He's popular, she's not. He blackmails her, she doesn't have a choice. He's a player, and now she's his girlfriend. Clichéd? You'd think so. What's the catch making it more unique than it sounds?
About the 'M' rating: I don't think there will be anything majorly explicit in here (then again there probably will be, so don't say I didn't warn you) only language (a lot of swearing folks) but there is child abuse and self harming in here and with an M rating I can be as explicit as I wish without losing readers halfway through by changing the rating. Also this story includes both hetero and homosexual relationships…I am aware I just warned you this includes straight relationships but there are closed minded twats out there that expect a warning for slash so I am going to warn you about straight relations too. It's only fair. I don't believe in warning people about slash in the naffing first place!
A/N: Ahhh! A new story! With chapter titles and decent length chapters (for me anyway) shocking I know. Woot. I want to thank everyone who read 'Love me I live in hope' and for encouraging me, you have no idea how much you truly have helped me. I know this story is a lot different from that, its more light-hearted despite including a good amount of angst (because lets face it, it is me…) but I hope that I wont lose any of my older readers due to that. I'm hoping this turns out a lot better, and I know that in turns of writing quality it definitely is, I just hope someone enjoys it! Please let me know what you think, I really do need and appreciate your feedback.
Next chapter…shorter author's notes :P
Don't Judge A Book By Its Cover.
Chapter 1 - Bad jokes and even worse days.
"Get out of my way" I growled. Today has not been a good day and it's not even half over yet. I had a physics test first lesson which I forgot about, got given a shit load of history work second, and one hour before lunch I was already fucking starving. Needless to say, I was not in a good mood. Nonetheless, here I was presented with a perfect opportunity to blow off some steam, and I took it as such. Hey, I'm an annoyed girl with a staggeringly short temper; don't say you can't blame me. Besides, its not like the prat blocking my way – on purpose - doesn't deserve my wrath anyway. So be it.
"I realise that your abnormally big head from holding such an immense capacity of both air and your ego may be too large for such a minimal doorframe yet I do sincerely advise you to move, before I pop it open and deflate its contents."
He scoffed "and why Adams, should I listen to you?"
"Because I always mean what I say." With that I waved my nicely grown, sleekly painted fingernails in his face and flicked the side of his temple. Hard. Wincing against his will he moved to the side glaring at me, grinning back I stepped past him, though not before his foot extended and I found myself tripping into the classroom, though I was miraculously, still on my feet. Hearing his annoyed sigh I flipped him off, announced "one nil to me Jacob" and sat in my seat.
Walking past me to reach his own seat he casually pushed my books off my desk and with a very insincere "sorry" he also sat down.
"Yeah so am I…sorry that you obviously didn't wash this morning that is. It's called personal hygiene Jacob and I suggest you get better acquainted with it." Jacob was his first name, which he hated. Using his last name like he used mine when everyone else used his as a nickname surely wouldn't do now would it?
A couple of onlookers chuckled to themselves, we got an audience though most were used to it and simply ignored us. We'd been bickering for years. One a small dislike for one another had flourished into a plant of considerable hatred.
I mean…We're total opposites, our personalities couldn't clash more and arguing is fun…
Jacob Donovan is honestly the most insincere, self obsessed and arrogant jerk I have ever had the misfortune to meet. Unfortunately he's in my year at school, and in two of my four classes. Being one of the popular lot he was naturally programmed to be good looking, his scruffy black hair hung in all directions, whilst his grey eyes stood out to all who looked at him, alongside his facial features was his well toned body due to him being an avid sports player. Obviously he was notorious for being a player, the girls wanted him and the guys knew not to mess with him. In short, he was one of the so called gods of our school and sickeningly was treated as such. Its just a shame that his personality is shit and that my school is too full of mindless clones to register that anything but a sexy exterior is worth even considering.
I swung myself down to scoop my books up off the dirty, chewing gum covered, carpeted floor as one of my closest friends walked into the classroom and sat herself down next to me giving off an immediate sense of cheeriness one always associates with her; she's like a breath of fresh air. She made an annoyed sound in the back of her throat whilst trying to sort her hair out, not that there was anything wrong with it, there never was. She was gorgeous, almost had all the makings to be the most popular girl in the school. I'm not a lesbian or anything but I totally wouldn't push her out of bed. Anyway. I said almost because even though she was stunning with her blonde hair that rested naturally on the middle of her back, and her startling blue eyes, she also, had a personality. She wasn't a snob and she wasn't a bitch – well not unnecessarily anyway, and she had been my best friend since we were five.
I on the other hand was rather plain. I wasn't the worst looking girl you could imagine, but still I'm nothing special. My short black hair had one blue streak in its fringe which highlighted my light blue eyes, which are the only thing I can heartily say I like about myself appearance wise, they're so light blue they're almost grey. Jaynee also had a fashion sense where I was quite happy in baggy jumpers and jeans.
I say happy, I am in winter. I hate being too hot, it makes you all sticky, dizzy and it saps your energy, really who likes feeling like that?
"Ooh its gorgeous outside, I cant wait for summer!" Apparently Jaynee did. I grumbled, and she laughed at me, "well if you're hot take your jumper off!"
"I like my jumper" childishly I stuck my tongue out at her and quickly replaced it back in my mouth after I saw Miss Hart walking into the classroom. New to the school this year, she was nice, timid and a little too over enthusiastic.
"Settle down, settle down class, we have a lot to get through today."
The truth was, I used to love summer, in fact in some ways I still do. I love waking up to a clear blue sky in the morning and I love the elated feeling it gives me knowing the day ahead would be a bright one, it really sets you up for a good one you know? However I wore my long sleeves for another reason, no matter the weather, I'm actually well known for them. To be fair I would probably wear them anyway, or they'd still be baggy at least because I hate tight fitting clothes. Why should I bring attention to myself like that when I know that my friends don't shit no matter what I look like – and their opinion is the only one that matters to me. So I may as well be comfortable because I'm not here to impress anyone. Fuck them if they don't know it's the personality that counts.
That other reason though has serious credibility…my upper arms are covered in scars, both old and new from my need to gain control, my obsession, my secret. I live with my short-tempered alcoholic of a dad and to sum it all up it fucking sucks. I don't have any other family and darling mother left us. I don't remember ever even seeing her. Its more abuse by neglect than it is physical but he hits me enough for me to know about it.
My friends know he's an arse, and there have been a couple of incidents where even I couldn't hide my bruises, but I haven't told them everything, so as far as my dress sense goes they just think I'm a complete tomboy, not to mention weird. At least I don't have to make excuses up because my wardrobe goes without saying now, and that is beyond fine with me.
"Okay, today we're going to begin a project, you'll be working in pairs and each of you will get a chapter of 'The Scarlet Letter' to analyse. You'll have three weeks and by the end of it you will have to present the chapter to the rest of the class going through all the specific exam criteria you would have to mention in your exam. A hand out for everyone in the class, plus an essay writing everything up must also be produced. This is a great opportunity to practice exam technique and I hope you will all treat it as such. You will be graded on this."
The class groaned, though they were automatically exemplified after the next part of Miss' explanation. "I know all of you will already know who you want to work with" me and Jaynee smiled at each other "and I'm sorry but I will be choosing your partners. I want you to branch out and work outside your comfort limits." Our smiles fell as we scrunched our eyes up in disbelief and sighed. So not fair.
"Your partners therefore are…" she said it with a very commanding tone clearly stating that we have no choice in the matter.
After a couple of minutes there were only six of us left to be paired up; me, Jaynee, twatboy, Mike, Sasha, and David, - I was starting to get a very bad feeling. "Not him not him" I muttered under my breath, Jaynee was giggling silently and finally elapsed into peels of laughter after the announcement "Lucy Adams, with Jacob Donovan if you please." Fuck.
"It's not funny!" I hissed to her. "Miss!" I started to complain though unsurprisingly I wasn't the only one to do so.
"Miss I am not working with that!"
"Like I want to work with you either!"
"Now is that because you don't want to work with me or because no one else will work with you?" He said in mock thoughtfulness bringing his fingers up to stroke his chin like he really was thinking – pfft yeah right!
I stroked my own chin with my middle finger, flipping him off and began to snarl a reply but miss interrupted "You will work together or you will fail. End of discussion." I slunk back into my chair for the rest of the lesson admitting defeat and only half listened to what miss was telling us we would need to include within the work. Finally, the bell rung and the soothing sound reminded me it was time for dinner, which may finally quell the rumbling of my stomach.
"Yay food!" I jumped up out of my seat and me and Jaynee ran out of the room so fast she had to tell me to slow down. Slightly breathless yet laughing nonetheless we took our usual seats in the dining room that was exclusively for sixth formers – it was in short, the epitome of the schools groups.
There was the sporty popular people, the slutty popular people, people who were just popular and then there was us. Me, Jaynee and Liam.
And you know what? We loved it. Why mope around because you aren't accepted by a bunch of fakers? What was the point? We know there isn't one and refuse to be anything but the social rejects we truly are, its exactly like they say isn't it – I'd rather be hated for who I am than loved for who I am not. Too fucking right.
Making a beeline for our small table in the far corner of the room we hopped onto the bench that surrounded it, me huddled in the corner as usual, leaning against the wall. Without hesitation I pulled out my lunch and me and Jaynee began eating and talking animatedly.
"Oh!" I said through a mouthful of food "wanna hear a joke?" I love jokes, especially bad ones, Jaynee knows this all to well as proven when she rolled her eyes but motioned with her hands wearily for me to carry on. I grinned happily "what's orange and sounds like a parrot?"
"I have no idea, go on enlighten me, I can see you're bursting to do so…" her voice was laden with cold sarcasm but I could see the humour in her sparkling blue eyes.
"A carrot!" She raises one of her eyebrows at me, I don't know how she does that! Wish I could. Our eyes meet and we collapse into hysterical laughing fits, finally we stopped when we felt someone else seat themselves at our table, I lifted my tear glazed eyes up to Liam's and choked out a "hey."
"Oh I'm glad you're happy, do you know how much I bombed out on that physics test?"
"You can't have done worse than I did trust me, at least you revised! I forgot! And I'm not in a good mood." I put my head on the table and received a sympathetic pat on it from Liam who laughed.
"Could have fooled me."
"She's trying to fool herself" gee go ahead Jaynee, act I'm like I'm not here, I don't care.
Snorting to myself I raised my head and began to eat again "what am I avoiding then?"
"A certain someone in a certain class because of a certain project…"
"No! She didn't…they're partners?" I nodded, feeling like with doing so I was signing my death sentence and both him and Jaynee erupted into fresh bursts of laughter. Gits!
Instantly he looked over at the large table Jacob always sat at, to his left was Will Strand, another popular, talented, air-headed loser, and to his right, was his current flavour of the month. She had straight black hair which fell on her shoulders neatly and had a knack for wearing as little clothes as possible. I mentally rolled my eyes. They had been going out for two months now – undoubtedly Jacob's longest relationship and it was all anyone could talk about. Well I say anyone, anyone who has nothing better to do with their time. Stupid clones.
"Hasn't killed him yet then."
I vaguely wonder if it's a bad thing that he knows who she was talking about and before I could voice this out load they commenced the laughing fits yet again and I groaned both at my current situation and at feeling a grin stretching the corners of my mouth, laughing is contagious, it's a physical impossibility for it not to be when around these pair.
Liam completes our little group, he's fun, sarcastic and an amazing friend, his small build enables me and Jaynee to keep him in check. Liam's got light chestnut hair with auburn eyes and is nothing like the typical guys of our age, he's respectful and wouldn't judge anyone if you paid him – a fact that either has to do with his careful upbringing or him being gay, one of them anyway.
"She is trying to make it go away, but its not going to happen."
I throw a crisp at her "it will too." Hey! It could happen…
"Will not, you'll need a hell of a lot more willpower if you wanna even carry on thinking that's going to work…because he's behind you." She smirked and I scowled.
Fuck.
"May we help you?" I asked in a bored tone turning my head round, were Satan was indeed stood - hopefully he'll go. "Jaynee give me my crisp back," I added. She ate it. Is everyone against me?
"What? No hello…oh you need to work on your manners…"
"How does naff off you loser sound for a greeting? And if we're talking about working on things, how about you work on your face? From a distance. Like on the moon kind of distance. 'Kay?" I added in a sickly high pitched tone of voice I never use hoping he'd get the hint and go.
Yeah right, no such luck.
He snorted "Yeah 'cos I'm the loser here, here's you sat with so many people I can count of one hand where I have the entire school at my feet. Gee being a loser sure is fun!"
He did not just insult my friends. "They're my best friends and I'd advise you to shut up about them, then again I can't blame you for being jealous, your so called mates don't want you for you-"
"-obviously," Jaynee scowled and I silently thanked her.
"They don't want you for your so called personality, and I would rather actually have one of those any day before I become a sheep. That and your so called girlfriend is currently trying to seduce every other lad on your table."
His eyes momentarily flickered over to his table where he caught his girlfriends eye causing her to cease her flirting immediately, she looked crestfallen and I snorted unable to help myself.
"Have you finished?" I nodded mockingly, my over-enthusiasm giving me a slight headache. "Good. Here." With that he thrust his hand in front of my face and made to hand me a small slip of white paper with something scribbled on it.
"And what is that?" I asked in my most sickly, fake innocent voice taking it from him nonetheless, so I'm too nosey for my own good, sue me.
"My address."
"Eeewww!" With that I held it between my forefinger and thumb at arms length and blew on it muttering "must get rid of germs, must get rid of germs". Jaynee was laughing her head off next to me whilst Liam was doing the same. Clearly Jacob was getting was getting annoyed. Well that was good enough for me! He scowled as I headed his huffing in annoyance with an all too not innocent "yes?"
"Look, neither of us want to fail English so lets us both just get on with it and get it out the way as soon as possible. There's no way I'm going over to your house, so think yourself lucky you're coming to mine" I scoffed and rolled my eyes, yet was slightly relieved that I wouldn't have to make up an excuse about how he would not be allowed to come over to mine. Now way would that ever be allowed.
"I have cricket practice Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday nights and football on Friday. You free tonight?"
Tonight? Thank god for that! He must have seen the joy light up on my face and he obviously misinterpreted it as he scowled and said "well fine then when do you suggest we do it?"
"No, tonight's more than fine actually, it's the only night I'm free too." He looked sceptical, and yeah lets face it what would I ever be doing all week long?
Monday's the only weeknight my dad is always out on until late, he never says why, and quite frankly I don't care, but it looked like Mondays it was. He was rather bipolar when concerning if I'm allowed out or not, it depended on his mood…sometimes I could be gone for a week and he wouldn't care, others he'd be furious if I so much as got home from school late. At least something had gone right today. I'd say yeah and thank god, but whatever, because I'm still stuck with it.
"Come round any time you want, I don't care." Glancing at the address I realised it would take me twice as long to get there if I walked home from school first and I frowned.
"Is straight from school alright?"
"Yeah whatever" with that he flounced off back to his table and I slumped back into my seat.
"Where's he live then? Lemme see" she squinted at the address and rolled her eyes "posh git, figures."
I snort, "obviously."
"What a jackass." Liam stated, "and he could have at least offered you a lift."
"I don't want a lift from him." I received yet another bout of eye rolling and ignoring them I shifted in my seat closer to Liam, I leant over on my arms and pouted whilst battering my eyelashes at him "Liaaaaaam" I sang in a baby voice I asked "can I have a lift?"
"But of course," he replied with a grin.